employed during harry truman's administration to ronald reagan's. collecting memorabilia that offers a three-dimensional timeline of the presidential families. truman's lighter, jfk's monogrammed baby pen. even a burnt wooden post from 1814 when the british set fire to the white house which arrington found at work during the truman reconstruction. >> found a table in the carpenter shop. >> reporter: he helped with the kennedy renovation and collected items from the first lady herself including a handwritten thank you note after the death of her son patrick. >> real people with real lives and a lot of this collection demonstrates that fact. >> i'm sure when he was collecting them he never thought they would be of great value but today we live in history. >> reporter: 1,000 things that arrington saved will be auctioned off today starting from $25 to $12,000. just like presidential life, the collection is bittersweet. wedding and inauguration announcements, memories of an assassination and a funeral. >> when i dug down the bottom of the box i found the